Earth Angel and the Shepherd

What do angels look like? We had to face this question when given the assignment to come up with an angel costume (Gabriel, to be precise) for our son's Christmas program. Of course, they are usually depicted as wispy, white, and utterly detached from anything on this earth. But if angels are all around us and in our midst, then it's very likely that they are much more earthy than clouldly. We know that when they appear to people, usually people are afraid--thus the usual greeting 'Fear not!' But we don't know that the fear came from their appearing in wispy, gossamer gowns with tinsel on their heads. Stuck, then with how to give Jonathan some appropriate Gabriel Garb, I decided to go for ferns instead of tinsel. So here are Jonathan's fern wings.

And as for our other son, I was delighted when Daniel's Pre-K teacher told me that she gave him the option of what part he wanted to play in their Christmas play, and he chose a shepherd. He didn't pick a king or Joseph, but the shepherd. This kid is down to earth.

Seeing Newberg from NewZealand

New Zealand is nice, but Newberg is home--and it's good to be home. One question we spent time discussing in New Zealand is why we tend to have a bias AGAINST hometown. Why do we think success means moving away to some far away place? What do we do to foster this displeasure for being rooted? Wendell Berry says at some point we need to just stay put.

It's good to get away and get perspective on home, but I love that we are making Newberg home and that we are becoming rooted here. We're going on seven years being in this home in this place. And unless we're obviously told to go elsewhere, we look forward to being here for the long haul. By the way, this picture is from LAST year--nearly a year ago to the day. Right now, all we're getting is good Oregon rain. Maybe we'll go try to make some rainmen.

Making Room for the Chicken (Holy Spirit)

I went down under to teach, and ended up learning a lot. Teaching for this intensified period of time, and teaching in an embodied way helped me see a lot of these concepts that I've been teaching in a new way. I've read the story 'Watch with Me' by Wendell Berry many times, but after the class acted out the story on the beach (as the sun set--left), 'making room for the chicken' became my new picture for how to teach. In the story, a whole group of men start following a crazy, suicidal guy in the community since he was carrying a shotgun. If they had followed too close, he probably would have shot someone. But they didn't just ignore him either, because he would have shot himself. Eventually, keeping their 'not too close, not too far' distance, a chicken--who represents the Holy Spirit--the mother hen--flies into his face. Had they been too close, there would have been no room for the Holy Spirit. But if they had ignored him, he would have killed himself before encountering the chicken. The guy swatted at and hit the chicken (instead of the 'watching guys') and at that moment finally woke up out of his crazed spell. The fight has to be with God, not the people who are helping. This right space is difficult to keep, but it has inspired me. I love it when students help me learn what I'm teaching. When that quits happening, I quit.

On the left are the guys keeping watch at the right distance leaving enough space for 'Thatch' to encounter the Holy Spirit (Chicken) and have his awakening fight with God. The chicken flies in his face, he hits the chicken (instead of his friends) and he then snaps out of his crazy spell realizing where and who he is.

Outdoor Kiwi Classroom #3

On Wednesday, we met for class on a local farm. Half the students worked on the farm, while the other half talked with me about the reading, and then the two groups switched. Is work a blessing or a curse? We were called to be keepers and tenders of the earth BEFORE the curse, so when is work a blessing? What makes for meaningful work?

Marcel (below) is playing Gloucester in King Lear who goes from pride to despair (which Berry identifies as the two false feelings) and finally ends up in hopeful healing (after surviving an attempted 'jump' from what he thinks is the top of the cliffs of Dover). His son made him think he was committing suicide, but when the attempt failed, he awoke to a new apprec- iation of his life--neither proud nor in despair. How do we build hope in the face of either pride of human achievement or the despair of failed achievement? Wendell Berry and Shakespeare have some pretty good ideas about that. (hint--it involves others helping us realize how big life is and how small we are in comparison--and it results in us engaging in good, meaningful work).

Outdoor Kiwi Classroom #2

This was another location for one of our class sessions (below is a shot from a distance with us on top of the rock next to the ocean). This session was on the GOODness of all God's creation (and what implications that has for how we understand evil). This has to be one of the best class settings I've ever experienced--I was a bit nervous about falling 50 feet if I got too excited about what I was saying and took a step backwards. But it was worth the risk.

One sometimes has the fear that meeting outside will be too 'DIS- TRACTING' but to be sure, some- times our insulated ideas and sterile classrooms can also distract us from the overwhelming goodness of God's creation. I also liked getting to continue discussing these ideas as we continued our walk along the peninsula.

Outdoor Kiwi Classroom #1

Tuesday morning instead of being in a classroom, we hiked around the peninsula, over white limestone rocks, walking in silence 'reading nature' while stepping over the many shelled creatures and trying to keep our distance from the ripe-smelling seals sunbathing on the rocks. Finally we came to our first spot to talk about that morning's reading and this was our classroom. I've taught this material before, but for some reason, being out there discussing these things made a much deeper impression on me, and the discussion went in directions it had never gone before. For example, these great students were giving me all sorts of Biblical reasons why I as the "Stick Man" should relate to the earth differently. That is, why should a person who is convinced that it is 'my God-given duty to dominate, control and use the earth as I please' stop beating the earth and start relating to it as a fellow creature who is put in charge of caring for it? Let's just say 'stick man' was not easily convinced. Good understanding of Scripture was needed, for sure, but it would take more than that to convince me to change the way I relate to creation. Stick man remained stick man for the day.

Arrived in NZ

The good news was that I got to the airport on time (thanks Tim).
The bad news was that the airline said I didn't have a ticket or a visa.
The good news was that they realized I didn't need a visa, and I indeed had a ticket.
The bad news was that the flight to LA was almost 2 hours late.
The good news is that after running and rushing through security, I made it onto the flight to the Air New Zealand 747.
The bad news is that the people with my luggage did NOT run (and so it didn't arrive for another two days).
The good news was that I didn't have to spend the night in LA (because I made my flight).
The bad news was that I was stuck in the middle seat in the middle row in the back of a section.
The good news is that I'm not claustraphobic.
The bad news is that after the person in front leaned back, and those on both sides fell asleep, I became claustraphobic.
The good news is that the flight was only 12 hours long.
The bad news was that the flight was 12 hours long.
The good news is that I made it there.
The bad news is that I was still two hours from where I was headed.
The good news is that I finally got there, and on my first full day got to climb up Mt. Fyffe (see picture--and thanks Curtis for hiking with me).
The bad news is we didn't leave in time to get up to the top and back
The good news was that hey, I'm in New Zealand near the top of a mountain looking at the sea.
Good to be here.
I'm pointing to where the site of the school is located--at the Old Convent. We then hiked down the mountain and biked back to where I'm pointing.

Going to teach Down Under

I'm heading to New Zealand in less than two weeks to participate in the Creation Care Studies Program (CCSP) in Kaikoura (on the South Island). Kaikoura is located right where the peninsula in the picture attaches to the rest of the island. I will be teaching a week-long course on God and Nature, examining the Biblical and theological basis for Creation Care. We will be examining the ways that a broken relationship with the rest of creation breaks our relationships with other humans and with God. Likewise, a healthy relationship with God's creation cultivates right relationship with God and human. We will be looking at the ways that detachment from the land affect detachment from community and God.

The program is a strong program and here's a cool video showing more about the program. A group of 24 students are studying there all semester and several professors come through and teach one course at a time. Instead of meeting in a classroom, many of our sessions will be held out of doors--on a mountain lookout, or on a local farm, or around a fire on the beach. This semester's students also have a blog about what's going on so far.

Children Meditate

This weekend I took my two boys camping and we stayed on the Santiam River. Sunday morning as we were sitting by the fire with blue skies above and red trees around us, both boys were sitting on my lap as I read to them a few verses from Psalm 77. In particular, I read, "I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds."

I then asked them what it meant to 'meditate.' Jonathan said, "I don't know." Daniel stared at the fire. I said, do you remember that really good piece of chocolate you had last night after eating smores?" 'Yes.' "Do you remember how you ate that piece of chocolate really slowly?" (he had been very careful to suck on one small chunk for about ten minutes). "Yes." Well, that's like meditation. Instead of gobbling it up like Augustus Gloop (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), you took a long time tasting it and eating it.

Now look at that tree. To gobble it up would be to look at it quickly and then look away. But let's try meditating on that tree. What do you notice? Over the next ten minutes, they did describe all sorts of things about it--the moss hanging from it, the size of it's branches, the fact that it was alive and the one next to it was dead, etc. Until finally, Daniel said, "Can you go back to talking about chocolate?"

Well, we did go back to talking about chocolate, but even meditating on chocolate is meditating on God's deeds--God's good deeds. Taste and see that the Lord is Good (Ps. 34.8)

Leap of Faith

What would convince me to jump from a small platform 45 feet in the air? The fact that a bunch of my students were on the ground holding the rope in case I didn't reach the trapeze bar? Were any of them upset about grades? Now was their chance. But a group of about 20 of our philosophy majors went out to Tilikum for a retreat last weekend and this was part of what we did.

I did in fact miss the bar--though I got one hand on it--and they did in fact catch me before I hit the ground. But come to think of it, they also said 'farther, farther' when I asked them how far out I should ask to have the bar moved away from my little platform. But I did, and do, trust them--even if I may not have evidence to prove it. After hanging out in the woods with them all weekend, in fact, I trust them all the more. It is such a good thing to be out in God's beauty--it quickly convinces me that we are not as separate from the rest of creation as we modern folk pretend to be. And being out there with other people is a great way to realize that we are not as separated from other people as we modern folk pretend to be. Thanks to Tilikum for helping us to have that opportunity!

Garden Feast

Over 60 people enjoyed the celebration with live music, fresh organic food, drum circle, and some good earth stories from Native American Randy Woodley.













We served up a a pesto wrap from pesto that had been made the day before. On top of that were roasted tomatoes and roasted pumpkin and delicatta squash.

Lots of people pitched in to make this a really special night, and the weather was perfect, complete with a beautiful moon as the sun set. Anyone interested in the garden for this upcoming year, please let me know!

Earth-wise Celebration on Wednesday

The Community Garden is having it's third-annual Garden Feast on Wednesday Sept. 23 at 6pm. There will be some food (bring potluck if you can, but come anyway if you can't). There will be a drum circle, music, food, bonfire, and a special appearance by Native American (Cherokee) Randy Woodley (who teaches at the Seminary). He will give a brief (ten minute) talk about ways of being Earth-Wise. This is co-sponsored by SOPHILO--the student philosophy group on campus.

Boyz in the Wood

Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods is a wake up call to our culture of being inside and being 'plugged in.' He says that children today suffer from NDD (Nature-Deficit Disorder) and that so much of our creativity and
social, spiritual development occurs in nature. It has inspired Jill and me to get our boys out hiking or playing in the woods as much as possible. Here is one of our camping trips from the summer when we were in the Redwoods.

Happy Reaper

I was amazed at how delightful it is to get into the rhythm of swinging a 2-foot blade back and forth across the lawn. This thing is solar powered (indirectly--via the food I eat which is produced by the sun), and I've never had so much fun mowing the lawn. I was looking for a way to cut the lawn high (making even longer, healthier roots) that did not involve a gas- powered mower.

I decided to try this and could not believe how well it worked. I was convinced my lawn would be all hacked up, but it came out looking not bad. If you'd like to give it a try, feel free to come over and test it on my lawn (but you'll have to get it away from me first). =)

Post Script: (added 10-8-09). I just read a short 3 page essay by Wendell Berry entitled "A Good Scythe" found in The Gift of Good Land on how much better a scythe is than a power weed whacker. Better, that is, at doing the job, and much more enjoyable to use--he actually finds it a pleasure to use. And I couldn't agree more. Here's a quote:

"The Marugg grass scythe proves itself an excellent tool. It is the most satisfying hand tool that I have ever used. In tough grass it cuts a little less uniformly than the power scythe. In all other ways, in my opinion, it is a better tool because, it is light, it handles gracefully & comfortably even on steep ground, it is far less dangerous, it is quiet & makes no fumes, it is much more adaptable. In rank growth one narrows the cut & shortens the stroke. It always starts - provided the user will start. Aside from reasonable skill & care in use, there are no maintenance problems. It requires no fuel or oil. It runs on breakfast. It’s cheaper to buy than most weed eaters & is cheaper to use than any other power mower. And best of all it’s good exercise."

Christian Pow-Wow

Jillian, Jonathan, Daniel and I had the privilege of attending a Christian PowWow a few Saturdays ago. Richard Twiss (pictured here in red and yellow dancing with one of his sons) has this annual event, helping Native Americans practice a Christian Faith that does not demonize their culture. Randy and Edith Woodley helped us understand what was going on, explaining the dances, drums, and traditions.

Some of the dances were for everyone to join in, so we eventually did, and you can see Jonathan and Daniel, holding hands and getting into it. A few days after the event, Jillian and I heard pounding up in their bedroom, and I peaked into their room to find them doing a circle dance, complete with bells attached around their ankles. Even now, a few weeks later, Daniel or Jonathan will be walking along, and then will spontaneously break into a traditional dance step. We love it!

They were especially mezmorized by Randy and Edith's son, Young, who performed the 'Grass Dance'. Here they are with Young.

6th Birthday at Tilikum

For Jonathan's sixth birthday, we went to Tilikum and had a creation 'treasure hunt' with six different clues hid all around the trails (and one clue was floating on the lake). Each clue was related to one of the six days of creation, and each time we found something, there was a set of prizes related to that day, along with the next clue. For example the fourth clue read, "God made me and the moon on the fourth day. Just ask me for the clue and I'll show you the way." At this point they eventually figured out it was the sun.

I then had them all face the sun and ask for the next clue. I had attached it to a rock and, while standing behind them, I threw it high into the air, and it fell in front of them as if from the sky. Not all of them believed that the clue actually fell from the sun (because it would have been burned up), but they were all delighted, nonetheless.

I had a great time seeing these kids wander around Tilikum, figuring out how to retrieve clues from a tree and exploring the area. A great book about the importance of getting kids outside is called, The Last Child in the Woods: Saving your Child from Nature-Deficit Disorder. It's a great book that shows the importance of kids being in nature and how that is becoming an exception rather than a norm. It also gives motivation and ideas for how to get kids outside.

New Whole House Fan!

I've been wanting to do this project for two years now--install a whole house fan. What is it? Why is it so great and so green? Watch this. But I've been putting it off because I thought it required more work than it actually did. When I watched this video I realized installing it was much easier than I thought. So I bought one and just installed it in an evening and a morning. It would have taken less if I didn't have a lathe and plaster ceiling.

What is it? It is a fan that cools the house quickly and with very little energy. It means we probably won't have to use AC, and it will mean fresh air in the house instead of recirculated air. The concept is simple--it pulls the cool morning or evening air from outside from windows into the attic. This displaces the hot air in the attic (which is what makes the upper rooms very hot in the summer evenings), and it also brings cool air into the house. It also creates a gentle cooling breeze throughout the house.

Jillian, playing a beautiful Vanna, is displaying the fan as it arrived at our house. Our oldest son, Jonathan, is showing the fan after he helped me mount it (taking all of five minutes). Below is me looking through the hole I cut in our ceiling, and then there's a photo of what it looks like in our attic installed. Eazy Peezy, and we're looking forward to a cooler upstairs than we could have with AC--and much MUCH lower use of electricity!
UPDATE: Yesterday was the first really hot day since I installed it, and it was the first hot day (ever in this house) that we went to bed with cool (upstairs) bedrooms. Get this--the other times we were using our central AC, and this time we were not. So compared to our AC, this worked better (and it has a timer switch, so it runs for a few hours after we went to bed, but turned off--so it would not get too cold). I ran it again this morning for an hour, then shut up the house, and it's staying cool. I'll run it again this evening around 8 or 9pm, when it cools down outside.

Kinder-GARDEN

I had a lot of fun this spring with Jonathan's Kinder garten class. Mrs. Hutchins invited me to help them plant seeds and watch them grow. We planted tomatoes, sunflowers, beans and whatever else the kids wanted to plant. Then we planted the sunflowers outside. Here we are planting the 'kinder-garden' of sunflowers. They took the other starts home (tomatoes and such), and in the fall when the kids come back, they'll find tall sunflowers! These kids have such a natural awe and love of life--they are so open to the seeds that adults plant--like the love of seeds, dirt and things that grow!

On Washington Soil

A coalition of groups that care about the earth (including Restoring Eden, EarthJustice and the N.O.A.H Alliance) invited me to join in a day of lobbying senators and representatives on issues relating to caring for the earth and endangered species. It was part of the climax of an event called The Irreplaceable Wild. This was a traveling photo show of irreplaceable animals who are near extinction. It was a great show and I met or had meetings about a dozen people--senators (Senator Smith, Senator Wyden) and representatives (Representative Blumenauer) and the legal staff of Representive Wu and Representative Defazio. I also joined others in meeting their members of Congress, including Senator Bennet of Colorado and others. It was encouraging to work with others who cared about the earth for reasons of faith, and to tell members of Congress the stories of young Evangelicals who care deeply about the environment.

Green green lawn

Here we are on a lazy Sabbath afternoon napping, reading, and playing in our new lawn. Even Zooey likes it!

LAND Conference on this Friday

Click this poster to see more details. This will be a great conference on Friday. There will be many of the leading Native American Theologians in dialogue with a few of us 'White Guys' about how our PLACE affects our spirituality and how our relation to the LAND affects our relation to God and humans.

3rd Annual Community Garden Underway

Our introductory meeting for the Community Garden at George Fox is WEDNESDAY at 9pm in Hoover Lounge (2nd Floor). We'll be making plans for the coming season and doing a demo on how to mix soil for getting seeds started, and how to get the seeds going. Good times.